He explained the flap over President Kwak's plan to substitute Japanese for English in the schools.
"Sounds like your police buddy was right after all, about the Japanese angle," Jerry said.
"There's a Japanese angle all right, but I haven't figured out whether it relates to Captain Yun's cases. Or how it would affect HANGOVER. Tell Nate when I'll be getting there. I'll give him a call first thing after I check on Lori."
Jerry grinned. "First things first." Then his grin suddenly faded. "There's something I need to tell you before you leave, Burke. You've played it straight with me, and I intend to do the same."
Burke raised an eyebrow. "Tell me what?"
"About Song Ji-young." He bit at his lower lip. "I'm afraid we've fallen in love. I know office romances aren't too well thought of in some quarters. I don't know how you feel about it, but I wanted you to know."
It didn't come as any real shock to Burke. He had suspected something of the kind. Secretaries and assistants could be quite solicitous of their bosses, but Miss Song had seemed to exhibit a bit more than normal concern for Jerry. When he was on his trip to Andong and Kyongju, she had worried constantly about where he was and what he was doing. Burke had wondered if she were not getting overly inquisitive, but said nothing to Jerry after he had sent her on the shopping trip to buy furnishings for his apartment. Burke noted that evening how Jerry had been anxious to get back and decided someone must be waiting for him, most likely Song Ji-young. He couldn't be too critical, though, since he had already mentioned how it would be a good thing if Jerry became interested in one of the young beauties who seemed to abound over here.
"I'm glad you told me," Burke said. "I'd suspected as much. I don't have any problem with it as long as it doesn't interfere with getting the job done. Just don't let your feelings overrule your better judgement."
"Thanks. I appreciate that. I'll try to keep everything in perspective. I've really enjoyed working with you. Will you be back after the holidays?"
"I don't think so. You can get the rest of the papers shuffled for the bureaucrats. And I'm sure you can wind up HANGOVER without my help. I never did get to introduce you to Captain Yun, though. He'll call when he gets back from Pyongyang. Get with him and go over what he's found. It would be a good idea to tell him about your DEA background. I think you two should work well together."
Burke waved a final good-bye as he headed through the security check point, hoping this would be his last look at Korea for a long while. He would be happy to get back to Falls Church, to Lori and to the new babies, try to pick up life where they had left off nearly six weeks ago. But he had an uncomfortable feeling, perhaps a premonition, that things might not work out as he hoped.
Things were equally unsettling to the north. In the nearly three months since the fearsome blast that had decimated the ranks of North Korea's ruling communist clique, absolute chaos had given way to massive disruption and finally to organized confusion. Organized in that lower level bureaucrats still went about their jobs, but with little sense of ultimate direction. Without the oppressive hands of Kim and his son to hold the Korean Workers' Party together, it had splintered into a variety of factions. Many of the top functionaries, who were seated at the front of the audience that night in September, had been killed or maimed, while others remained hospitalized or able to contribute only token efforts toward governing the country.
Among those who survived without injury, due to his seat in the next to the last row, was So Song-ku of the Central Committee. Although formerly a hard-liner, he had become the soul of moderation. When those who envied the freedom and prosperity of their brothers to the south began to demand liberalization and cooperation with Seoul, So offered sympathy and suggested that the various groups sit down and talk. He helped open dialogue with the Kwak government and worked with liberal elements of the military to make a modest opening in the once tightly closed border known as the DMZ. He encouraged the postal authorities to arrange unfettered, meaning uncensored, movement of mail between north and south.
So also continued his alternate existence as the DRAGON, performing assignments communicated to him from NSP headquarters in Seoul. He normally received instructions by coded radio messages. That cold, windy afternoon in early December, he decoded a transmission that piqued his curiosity. It read:
"Monitor activities of ROK delegation police Captain Yun arriving Pyongyang today. Further instructions to follow."
Chapter 46
Burke waited nervously among the crowd around the luggage carousel. As soon as his bags rumbled into view on the noisy conveyor, he grabbed them off and began to struggle toward the ground transportation exit. That was when he almost literally ran into the sizeable figure of Will Arnold. Will had a sheepish grin on his face.
"Sorry I'm late, Burke. Got caught in traffic. Here, let me help you with those."
"How the hell did you know when I was getting here?" Burke asked as his neighbor grabbed the two largest bags. "I didn't take time to call anybody."
"You've got an efficient staff, man. Your gal Evelyn called Lori at the hospital this morning and gave her all the details."
Burke shot him a worried look. "How is Lori? Has she delivered yet?"
Will started hustling toward the exit. "No, but if we don't hurry, she's liable to."
Will wheeled his Caddy out of the parking lot and headed for the Dulles Access Road. He kept up a steady chatter as they raced toward Interstate 66. First the neighborhood gossip, then the status of things at the defense plant where he worked.
"I ran into the damnedest thing a couple of weeks ago," he said, shaking his head. "You'll be interested in this, since you just came from over there."
"Over where?" Burke said. He wasn't so sure of Will's assessment about his interest. A lot of his neighbor's windy tales struck him as deadly dull. Much of the time he'd nod and smile mechanically while tuning them out.
"Korea," Will said, as though it should have been obvious. "One of my bright young guys was Korean. At least part Korean. His father was an American. Died some years ago. I'm not sure I ever heard why. Anyway, back in October, I believe it was, he came in and told me his mother, who still lived in Korea, was ill and had nobody to look after her. He said she wouldn't come to America so he was quitting to go over there. He could find a pretty decent job in Korea, he said."
Burke's ears perked up, remembering the reports by Mitch Steele and Dr. Shin Man-ki of American-educated scientists and engineers working at Kanggu and Chuwangsan.
"Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I was at a company meeting and heard a guy from the Guidance Technology Division talking about one of his sharpest people leaving. Damned if it didn't sound like a reincarnation of my man. Right down to the story about his mother. Only difference was he wanted her to come over here but the doctors wouldn't let her travel."
"You mean another Korean-American?"
"Right. An engineer who designed guidance systems for missiles. Hell, South Korea doesn't have that kind of ballistic missile. He's going to find himself out of luck over there."
"How long ago did he leave the company?"
"I believe the guy said it was back in the summer. You know me, I get curious about things like that. I talked to a personnel man at the meeting, asked him if there was any way to find out how many people in the company had Korean ancestry. Didn't really think there would be. But he said because of some problems they'd once had with security clearances, they kept a file of people who had a parent or a spouse born in another country. I told him about my computer man leaving and that I'd heard there might have been some others, could he check into it and let me know. Well, he calls me back the next day and what do you know? Including the Guidance Technology guy, there were three others who'd left in the past six months. My man had his master's, the other three were PhD's. I asked him if it was something we ought to be concerned about, and he said he didn't see why. People are free to quit their jobs and go wherever they want to. We lose lots of people, not just Koreans. I guess that's true, but it seems a shame. I remember the fellow who worked for me saying he went to school on a scholarship from some kind of Korean-American fund in California. Hell, they go to school on our money and then bug out for someplace overseas."